For any director, working with the likes of Brando, DeNiro or Nicholson must be, to say the least, intimidating. Kevin Lima and Chris Buck know how they must feel. While the co-directors of TARZAN may never have dealt with Marlon, Robert or Jack, they have, in animation terms, worked with their equivalent — Glen Keane.
"It was a nerve-wracking thing when Glen’s name came up," said Buck, who, along with Lima, had once worked under Keane. "We were told that Glen would like to do [the character of] Tarzan. I thought, ‘Can I really tell Glen what to do?'"
"I was scared to death," admitted Lima. "I thought, ‘He’s never going to listen to me.’ I was most afraid of it in the beginning and he was the one I was least concerned about in the end."
"He’s so confident in his ability," added Buck, "that he could say to us, in a sense, ‘You guys are the keeper of the film, I am the keeper of Tarzan. I am going to keep the quality of the character going, but you guys know how it all fits together."
Glen Keane has changed the well-worn animator axiom of "actor with a pencil" to "major thespian wielding a number two." Combining dynamic, energetic artistry with emotions that both spill out furiously and seep out slowly through drawings, Keane epitomizes the heights to which many animators are attempting to climb.
[…]
